Brine battery

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a brine battery comprising an anode body made of metallic magnesium or a compound thereof and a cathode body made of an oxide of lead, both of these electrodes being fixedly secured to an insulating mounting plate at mutually opposed position, both said electrodes being further capable of being freely soaked into or taken out of non-tight-enclosed brine or sea water.

e Unlted States Patent 1191 [111 3,785,871 Ichikawa Jan. 15, 1974 BRINEBATTERY 2,492,206 12/1949 White etal 136/100 R 2,365,600 12/1944Schorger [76] Inventor Masah'de l 3,466,194 9/1969 Duddy 136/26 l-chome,l-lmo, Tokyo, Japan 22 Filed; July 10 1972 Primary ExaminerAnthonySkapars Attorney-John J. McGlew et al. [21] Appl. No.: 270,545

[57] ABSTRACT [52] US. Cl 136/100 M The present invention relates to abrine battery com- [51] Int. Cl. H01m 17/00 prising an anode body madeof metallic magnesium or [58] Field of Search 136/100 M, 100 R, acompound thereof and a cathode body made of an 136/83 R, 26-27, 112-114,90, 134-135, oxide of lead, both of these electrodes being fixedly169-170, 175-176, 36, 65, 67 secured to an insulating mounting plate atmutually opposed position, both said electrodes being further [56]References Cited capable of being freely soaked into or taken out ofUNITED STATES PATENTS non-tight-enclosed brine or sea water.

3,481,790 12/1969 Duddy 136/100 R 4 Claims, 4 Drawing FiguresPAI'EN'IHJMN 1 m 3,785,811

. O.'2A CONSTANT CURRENT DISCHARGE FIG. 2

VOLTAGE (V) U DISCHfARGE (hr) 3 TIME 2 O.5A CONSTANT LU CURRENT 1 gDISCHARGE \l I FIG-4 I 085A CONSTANT m CURRENT 0 60 I 2.0 DISCHARGEDISCHARGE (mm) 5 TIME 911.0-

. DISCHARGE TIME (min) BRINE BATTERY BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THEINVENTION The so-called sea-water battery in which sea water is used aselectrolyte is already known in the form of Ag- Cl--Mg battery as wellas a battery of cathodic oxidants such as CuSO cu Cl etc. However, theseoxidants have various defects such as high cost, meltability andlowering of volume efficiency.

The present invention has been developed to improve on the art andremove these defects, and the said invention relates to a brine batterycomprising an anode, body made of metallic magnesium or a compoundthereof and a cathode body made of an oxide of lead, both of theseelectrodes being fixedly secured to an insulating mounting plate atmutually opposed position, both of said electrodes being further capableof being freely soaked into or taken out of non-tight-enclosed brine orsea water.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS Now, an embodiment of the brinebattery according to the present invention is explained referring toFIG. 1. In the FIG., 1 is an anode body consisting of metallic magnesium(Mg) plate; 2 is a masking film covering one surface of said anode body1 for the purpose of preventing said surface from being ionized; 3 is anelectrode body or cathode made by filling pastelike material 5 composedof trilead tetraoxide (Pb O dilute sulfuric acid (H SO etc., into openspaces of a lattice-like base plate 4 formed of an alloy of lead (Pb)and antimony (Sb) and drying said filled paste material; 6 is a mountingplate made of synthetic resin, to which both anode l and cathode 3 arefreely detachably mounted; 7 is a negative electricity collector; 8 isan outlet of negative electricity; 9 is a lead wire with a terminal forconnection to the negative pole of the load; 10 is a positiveelectricity collector; 11 is an outlet of positive electricity; 12 is alead'wire with a terminal for connection to the positive pole of theload; 13, 13 are movable clamps for freely detachably securing the anodebody 1 to the mounting plate 6 and 14, 14 are movable clamps for freelydetachably securing the cathode body 3 to the mounting plate 6.

According to the present invention, when the cathode body and anode bodyare soaked in, for example, brine as described above, an electrodepotential of -2.37 V is produced between the anode body, namely,metallic magnesium (Mg), and the brine, while an electrode potential of0.l7 V is generated between the cathode body, namely lead (Pb), and thebrine. Therefore, if the cathode and anode are short-circuited via theload, a potential difference of (0.l7 V) (2.37

V) +2.20 V is produced between the two electrode bodies, with a resultthat a voltage of +2.20 V is applied to the load.

Thus, the brine battery of the present invention comprising an anodebody made of metallic magnesium or a compound thereof a cathode bodymade of an oxide of lead has the decided advantage of being capable ofsupplying a high voltage of +2.20 V as mentioned above when the cathodebody and anode body are soaked together into brine or sea water.

If said cathode body and anode body are soaked in tight-enclosed brineor sea water for a long period of time for prolonged production ofelectric energy, the

cathode, anode and brine or sea water will chemically react with eachother, forming magnesium chloride (Mgcl sodium hydroxide (NaOH) andhydrogen ions (11*), and these products will be accumulated on thesurfaces of and between the two electrode bodies, thereby reducing theirelectromotive voltage and thus shortening the effective life of thecell. In the brine battery of the present invention, said cathode andanode bodies are soaked in non-tight-enclosed brine or sea water, sothat the accumulation of said magnesium chloride (MgClsodium hydroxide(NaOH) and hydrogen ions (l'l near the electrode bodies is impossible.Further, the hydrogen ions (I-I react with oxygen in the cathode bodyconsisting of an oxide of lead to form water (H O), thereby ensuring asubstantial advantage of long life for the brine battery of the presentinvention. Furthermore, if the cathode and anode bodies are freelydetachably mounted on the mounting plate made of insulating material asshown in the example above, it is possible to dismantle the cathode bodyand anode body separately, and therefore another advantage is obtainedin that if either of these electrode bodies has become unusable, forexample, it can be replaced or cleaned singly, namely, independently ofthe other electrode body, and accordingly with much simplicity and quickaction. In addition, since the cathode and anode bodies can be easilysoaked into or taken out of brine or sea water, they are pulled out ofbrine or sea water when the cell is not used. This will prevent naturalelectric discharge and thus will prevent lowering of the electromotivecapacity of each of the cathode and anode bodies, which proves to be agreat practical advantage.

For the purpose of comparison of the electric discharge characteristicbetween the brine battery of the present invention and a conventionalbrine battery, one each of such batteries having nearly the sameresistance value were selected and their resistances were set at 0.160.50. Using 3% NaCl solution as electrolyte and setting the distancebetween two electrodes at 1 mm, a test of the discharge of the cells wasconducted. Anode plates consisting of magnesium plate having a thicknessof 0.4 mm were placed on both sides of the lead electrode, andcontinuous discharge was conducted at constant current of 0.2 A, 0.5 Aand 0.85 A. The results are shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, in which thedotted lines represent the results of conventional brine battery whilethe continuous lines represent the results of the brine batteryaccording to the present invention. The discharge was started one minuteafter pouring 25 cc of electrolyte. The results of these tests indicatethat in comparison with the conventional brine battery, the brinebattery of the present invention is superior in dischargecharacteristics and the more so as the current becomes as high as 0.85 A(0.5 1.0 hour in discharge time) and that generally the discharge timeof the present invention is longer.

I claim:

1. A brine battery of improved construction comprisa. an anode made ofmagnesium in form of metal or compound;

b. low cost cathode having improved volume efficiency, and resistance tomelting, consisting of a lattice-like base plate having open spacesprovided therein with solidified powder of an oxide of lead and amasking film covering one surface of said anode comprises metallicmagnesium.

3. The battery according to claim 1, wherein the cathode comprises apaste composed of lead tetraoxide and dilute sulfuric acid in alattice-like base plate formed of lead-antimony alloy.

4. The battery according to claim 3, wherein the anode comprisesmetallic magnesium.

2. The battery according to claim 1, wherein the anode comprisesmetallic magnesium.
 3. The battery according to claim 1, wherein thecathode comprises a paste composed of lead tetraoxide and dilutesulfuric acid in a lattice-like base plate formed of lead-antimonyalloy.
 4. The battery according to claim 3, wherein the anode comprisesmetallic magnesium.